Overview of our 2019-2020 Season

Celebrating its 85^th year, Handel Choir will explore the music of artists in exile. In addition to Messiah, highlights of our season include the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil (Vespers), as well as a world premiere dedicated to the life of Pablo Casals, in collaboration with Peabody cellist Amit Peled. Though driven underground for their beliefs or displaced by war, Rachmaninoff and Casals exhibited a fearless artistry that thrived beyond the bounds of political strife and suppression.

Choose one of the Season Subscriptions Packages below.
 

Season Subscription Package A:

Premium - $110; Standard - $85; Student - $25

• Messiah - Saturday, December 14, 2019, 7:30 p.m. (Grace UMC)

• Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil - Sunday, March 7, 2020, 2:30 p.m. (Baltimore Basilica)

• Song of the Birds: A Pablo Casals Tribute - Saturday, April 25, 2020, 4:00 p.m. (Second Presbyterian Church)

Season Subscription Package B:

Premium - $110; Standard - $85; Student - $25

• Messiah - Sunday, December 15, 2019, 3:00 p.m. (St. Mark Church)

• Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil - Sunday, March 7, 2020, 2:30 p.m. (Baltimore Basilica)

• Song of the Birds: A Pablo Casals Tribute - Saturday, April 25, 2020, 4:00 p.m. (Second Presbyterian Church)

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2019-2020 SUBSCRIPTION CONCERT SEASON

Handel Messiah

7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 14, 2019, Grace United Methodist Church, 5407 N. Charles Street, Baltimore 21210

3:00 p.m., Sunday, December 15, 2019, Saint Mark Church, 30 Melvin Avenue, Catonsville 21228

The baroque master's beloved oratorio - our 85th year!
 

Handel Choir and Handel Period Instrument Orchestra

Katelyn Aungst soprano

Kristen Dubenion-Smith alto

Jacob Perry, Jr. tenor

Edward Vogel bass

Handel Choir of Baltimore

Handel Period Instrument Orchestra

Brian Bartoldus conductor

$47/Premium    $37/ Standard   $10 student with ID
 

Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil

2:30 p.m., Saturday, March 7, 2020, Baltimore Basilica, 409 Cathedral Street, Baltimore 21201
 

Bask in Rachmoninoff's lush, romantic harmonies as they fill thegrand dome of Baltimore's Basilica with their warmth and beauty!

Handel Choir of Baltimore

Brian Bartoldus conductor

$37/Premium   $27Standard   $10 Student with ID
 

Song of the Birds: A Pablo Casals Tribute

4:00 p.m., Saturday April 25, 2020, Second Presbyterian Church, 4200 St. Paul Street, Baltimore 21218

Peabody cellist Amit Peled joins Handel Choir, in collaboration with Community Concerts at Second, to celebrate the sublime artistry of Pablo Casals! Cherish the intimate beauty of Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, followed by the world premiere of Houses of Peace for cello and chorus by Baltimore's own Joshua Bornfield.
 

BOULANGER Hymne au soleil

HINDEMITH Six chansons

MONTEVERDI Dolcissimo usignolo

BYRD This Sweet and Very Merry Month of May

BRAHMS O Schöne Nacht

LAURIDSEN Sure on this Shining Night

LEE III Create in Me a Clean Heart

BRAHMS Schaffe in mir Gott ein rein Herz

BACH Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major

BORNFIELD Houses of Peace

Handel Choir of Baltimore

Amit Peled cello

Brian Bartoldus conductor

$42/Premium   $32/Standard    $10 student with ID

To subscribe by phone, call 667.206.4120 or go to www.handelchoir.org.

 

  

 

Audition to be a Soloist

Handel Choir of Baltimore is holding auditions for professional soloists for all voice parts. Auditions will be held Saturday, August 3 from 10 am to 3 pm at the Peabody Opera Studio, Leakin 114, 1 East Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21202. Click here for more information on soloist auditions.

 

Audition to be a Community Singer or Professional Choristers

Handel Choir seeks volunteer community singers and paid professional choristers for the 2019-2020 concert season. Auditions will be held on Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24 at the Church of the Holy Comforter, 130 Seminary Avenue, Lutherville, MD 21093.  Click here to sign up for an August 2019 audition.

Click here for information about what to prepare and what to expect for an audition.

 

 

Click here to purchase tickets to Handel Choir of Baltimore's Spring Benefit.

 

 

Click here to purchase tickets to Lux Aeterna: Songs of Comfort and Hope.

 

 

Handel Choir of Baltimore thanks its patrons and sponsors for their continuing support shown during our Heav’nly Harmony concert.

 

 

Click here to listen to an interview with Noah Horn,
organist for our Heav'nly Harmony performance.

 

Click here to purchase tickets to Heav'nly Harmony.
 

 

 

Handel Choir of Baltimore thanks its patrons and sponsors for making this year's presentation of Messiah a success.

 

 

Tickets can be purchased at the venue the day of the concert.

(Note: Online ticket sales have ended.)

 

Click here to listen to “Exploring Handel’s Messiah, a 3-Part Podcast Series with Jonathan Palevsky”.

Season Subscription Package A:
Premium - $110; Standard - $85; Student - $25

• Messiah -  Saturday, Dec 15, 2018, 7:30 p.m. (Grace UMC)
• Heav'nly Harmony - Sunday, March 10, 2019, 4:00 p.m. (Church of the Redeemer)
• Lux Aeterna: Songs of Comfort and Hope - Sunday, April 28, 2019, 4:00 p.m. (Church of the Redeemer)

Season Subscription Package B:
Premium - $110; Standard - $85; Student - $25

• Messiah -  Sunday, Dec 16, 2018, 3:00 p.m. (St. Mark)
• Heav'nly Harmony - Sunday, March 10, 2019, 4:00 p.m. (Church of the Redeemer)
• Lux Aeterna: Songs of Comfort and Hope - Sunday, April 28, 2019, 4:00 p.m. (Church of the Redeemer)

To subscribe by phone, call 667.206.4120.
 

2018-2019 Season Performances
Handel's Messiah

7:30 p.m., Saturday, December 15, 2018
Grace United Methodist Church, 5407 N. Charles Street, Baltimore 21212

3:00 p.m. Sunday, December 16, 2018
Saint Mark Catholic Church, 30 Melvin Avenue, CAtonsville 21228

The baroque master’s beloved oratorio – our 84th year!
Handel Choir and Handel Period Instrument Orchestra
Sherezade Panthaki soprano
Mikah Meyer countertenor
Allan Palacios Chan tenor
Phillip Collister bass
Brian Bartoldus conductor

$47/$37/$10 student with ID
Reduced ticket price available with a season subscription.
Click here to purchase single tickets for Dec. 15 Messiah.
Click here to purchase single tickets for Dec. 16 Messiah.

(There will be a pre-concert lecture one hour before each performance.)

Click here to view 2019 Season Press Release.

 

Live on Seminary

Saturday,  Nov. 10, 2018 at 7:00 PM
Church of the Holy Comforter, 130 West Seminary Ave, Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland

This benefit concert will include selections from Handel’s Messiah along with highlights from our upcoming season.

Tickets: $15-30. Click here to purchase tickets.

Sutton Scholars

Sunday, Nov. 18 at 4:00 PM
Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland

Click here to purchase tickets.

 

 

Handel Choir's new office location and mailing address is:

Handel Choir of Baltimore
10 Gerard Ave. Ste. 204
Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland 21093

First-class mail sent to 6200 North Charles Street Ste. 104 will be forwarded by the U.S. Postal Service.

 

 

 

Handel Choir seeks community singers, professional choristers and vocal soloists for the 2018-2019 concert season. Click here for information about what to prepare, what to expect and how to sign up for an audition.

 

 

Thursday July 26

Gertrude's Restaurant
10 Art Museum Dr, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

Enjoy some of the best Chesapeake cuisine the city has to offer and support an 83-year tradition of choral excellence in Baltimore!

Call 410-889-3399 for your reservations at Gertrude's Restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Gertrude's will donate a portion of all proceeds from the evening to Handel Choir to support our mission to perform choral and choral-orchestral music of the highest artistic integrity, specializing in baroque, classical and early-romantic styles, to sustain the art form and enrich the lives of Baltimore area residents through concerts, education programs and community collaborations.

All YOU have to do is enjoy a midsummer's evening of award-winning food and drink at the BMA!

Cheers!

Photo courtesy of Gertude's Restaurant.

 

 

PRESS RELEASE April 17, 2018

Brian Bartoldus appointed artistic director and conductor of Handel Choir (Click here for the full press release.)

Read our release to learn more about Brian, then join us this Saturday to see and hear him at work with Handel Choir!

 

 

Saturday Apr 21, 2018 at Second Presbyterian Church

Thank you to our wonderful audience who joined us Saturday April 21 to hear the sublime Requiems of Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Duruflé, with acclaimed soloists, organ, chamber orchestra and children's choir.

Special thanks to Philip Olsen and Second Presbyterian Church; to Bonnie Hamalainen, who designed our beautiful Sérénite program cover, postcard and other materials; to our concert sponsors Brian Bartoldus, Leslie Greenwald and Cindy Levering; to Senior Box Office and all our volunteer ushers; and to those who generously contributed to our In Commemoration giving initiative to help make this concert and all our programming possible.

 

FAURÉ Requiem
RENO Ave Maria
DURUFLÉ Tota Pulchra Es from Quatre motets sur des thèmes Grégoriens
DURUFLÉ Requiem

Monica Reinagel alto
Mark McGrath baritone
Daryl Yoder baritone
(Special thanks to Daryl Yoder, who generously contributed his talents when Christopher Edwards was unable to perform with us on this concert. We look forward to featuring Chris another time.)

Paul Skevington organ
Howard County Concert Orchestra
Children's Chorus of Maryland Concert Choir

Brian Bartoldus conductor
Susan Bialek conductor

TICKETS: $37 Premium (front and center pews), $27 Standard (behind Premium and to either side), $10 full-time student with I.D.

Pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. by Dr. Andrew Rosenfeld, chair of the visual and performing arts department at Mount St. Mary's University.

DIRECTIONS and PARKING

Sponsored by Brian Bartoldus, Leslie Greenwald, and Cindy Levering in memory of Len Levering.

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Saturday Mar 3, 2018 at Second Presbyterian Church (Guilford)

Thank you to our wonderful audience who joined us Saturday March 3 to experience the searing beauty and luminescence of Frank Martin's Mass for Double Choir. Martin kept his creation in a drawer for nearly 40 years because, as he said, it was "a matter between God and myself." This great unaccompanied work of the 20th century has been described as "a Renaissance mass lost in time." Beloved classics of the choral repertoire round out this uplifting program.

(Photo: Frank Martin conducts the Notre Père of In Terra Pax. Tel Aviv, 1971. From the Frank Martin Society.)

HANDEL Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened
MARTIN Mass for Double Choir
MOZART Regina coeli
MENDELSSOHN Mitten wir im Leben sind
BRAHMS Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren
BIEBL Ave Maria

Thomas Hetrick piano and organ

Brian Bartoldus conductor

Pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m. by Jonathan Palevsky, program director at WBJC 91.5 FM.

 

 

When you make a contribution to Handel Choir today, you're supporting a tradition of excellent community-based choral performance that has served greater Baltimore for more than 80 years.

We're pleased to announce that generous Handel Choir donors have met our $10,000 In Commemoration matching challenge!

Click here to learn more about In Commemoration.

Click here to give securely online, or mail your check made out to Handel Choir of Baltimore to:

Handel Choir of Baltimore
6200 North Charles Street #104
Baltimore, Maryland 21212

THANK YOU to our audience, subscribers, donors, friends and supporters. We look forward to singing for you on April 21!

 

From the singers, staff and board of Handel Choir, thank you to our patrons who came out Dec. 9 and 10 as Handel Choir and guest artists presented the Choir's 83rd annual performances of Handel's Messiah!

Special thanks to the folks at Grace United Methodist Church and St. Mark Catholic Church for hosting us, and to our volunteer ushers!

Handel Messiah

Dec 9 & 10, 2017 at Grace United Methodist Church and Saint Mark Catholic Church

The baroque master's beloved oratorio with period instrument orchestra and acclaimed soloists.
Arian Khaefi's final concerts with Handel Choir of Baltimore!

Handel Choir with Handel Period Instrument Orchestra

Kerry Holahan soprano
Emily Marvosh mezzo soprano
Kyle Stegall tenor
Peter Walker bass

Arian Khaefi conductor

Pre-concert lecture one hour before each performance by Brian Bartoldus, Handel Choir's 2017-2018 interim artistic director & conductor.

*Premium = center/front rows of the seating area

Sponsored by Catherine and John La Costa in honor of Arian Khaefi, by Robert E. Prince, and by Cheryl Tillman and Ron DeStefano in memory of Len Levering.

 

 

Food for Thought

3 p.m. Sunday Nov. 19
Church of the Holy Comforter, 130 West Seminary Ave, Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland 21093

Handel Choir joined forces with the Towson High School Chamber Choir for a concert that raised more than $5,000 for Food for Thought, a food assistance program for homeless children and their families in Baltimore County.

Towson High, Handel choirs hosts benefit concert to fight food insecurity by Margarita Cambest, The Baltimore Sun, November 15, 2017.

 

PROGRAM:

Towson High School GT Chamber Choir
Guest instrumentalists
Derrick Jackson, Director

The Word Was God     Rosephanye Powell
Esto Les Digo     Kinley Lange
Oh My Luve’s Like A Red, Red Rose     René Clausen
Erev Shel Shoshanim     Arranged by Jack Klebanow
It Takes a Village     Joan Syzmko
We Are One    Brian Tate

 

Handel Choir of Baltimore
Michael Britt organ
Thomas Hetrick conductor

Heavenly Home: Three American Songs     Shawn Kirchner (b. 1970)
      Unclouded Day

Mass for Double Choir    Frank Martin (1890–1974)
     Kyrie

Messiah     George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), Libretto by Charles Jennens (1700–1773)
      And the glory of the Lord
      His yoke is easy
      And with His stripes
      All we like sheep

Geistliches Lied     Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)

Heavenly Home: Three American Songs     Shawn Kirchner
     Hallelujah

 

Handel Choir and Towson High School Chamber Choir
Michael Britt organ
Thomas Hetrick conductor

Messiah     George Frideric Handel
     Hallelujah

 

 

Sunday October 22

R. House, 301 West 29th Street, Baltimore (21211)

Thanks to everyone who came to see us at R House, and special thanks to R House for hosting us! We had a great time presenting our first concert of the season in the glorious October sunshine and can't wait to sing for you again!

Congratulations to Elizabeth Kelly, who won the two free premium subscriptions to Handel Choir's 2017-2018 concert season when her survey was drawn from all the surveys completed at Free Fall!

If you aren't receiving our email, sign up here to be added to our mailing list and be first to learn about our concerts, events and other news!

Free Fall Baltimore is made possible by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and the generous contributions of BGE, American Trading & Production Corporation (Atapco), and The Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

A History of the Handel Choir of Baltimore (1935-2013): Music, Spread Thy Voice Around

by Carl B. Schmidt (Rowman & Littlefield, October 29, 2015)

"... chronicles the history of one of America’s longstanding volunteer choral organizations, one that has followed in the footsteps of venerable ensembles such as the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston), ..." Read more from the publisher

Click here to read review by Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun

Retail price (publisher, amazon.com, other online sellers): $85
Your price when you purchase directly from Handel Choir: $70

Click here for a printable mail-in order form!